this sounds like you are trying to compare Buddhist breathing with Daoist..?

In Buddhist breathing the stomach expands on the inhale and contracts on the exhale. It is used mainly in meditation, healing etc

Daoist breathing is the reverse of Buddhist, inhale - contract stomach, exhale - expand stomach. It is the breathing technique we use for kata - Sanchin, Tensho etc. Daoist breathing is what we use in our MA, it sends the ki to the extremeties & pressure points for protection and is able to assist the power of the blows.

Thank you Reiki. The distinction to use Buddhist for Zazen and Taoist for Moving QiGong is something I didn't recognize. Part of the confusion may be the referances in some research to do "Bellows" breathing first, which I may have confused as Buddhist before Taoist. By your knowledge, may I ask which method is appropriate for "Standing Zen", does it follow that it would be Buddhist too?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Scholar:Thank you Reiki. The distinction to use Buddhist for Zazen and Taoist for Moving QiGong is something I didn't recognize. Part of the confusion may be the referances in some research to do "Bellows" breathing first, which I may have confused as Buddhist before Taoist. By your knowledge, may I ask which method is appropriate for "Standing Zen", does it follow that it would be Buddhist too?[/QUOTE]

by standing Zen are u referring to a standing meditation? Forgive me for confusion however most of my meditation methods come from Indian style meditation not Japanese.

If so I would use Buddhist style breathing as this is the style of breathing that one normally uses in meditation.

Personally I only use Daoist breathing for preparation in sparring [mainly for aiding my speed of blows and for protection and in some kata - namely Sanchin and Tensho. In other kata the breathing is not so important as it is in these 2!